1. Field of the Disclosure
The present disclosure relates generally to imaging devices such as a printer or multifunction device having printing capability, and in particular to imaging devices with duplex printing having reduced churn.
2. Description of the Related Art
Printing on both sides of a sheet of media, referred to as duplex printing, provides an effective way for reducing the environmental impact of printing since less media sheets are required. However, duplex printing is inherently less efficient than simplex printing since the printing process typically continues to run during the time that the sheet is turned over and then returned to have its second side printed. This time spent running, but not printing, is called “churn” and results in additional wear on printer components as well as the toner. Additional churn is introduced when the printing process changes from a black only printing mode to a color printing mode. Color printing mode runs cyan, magenta, yellow and black imaging units to create full color prints. In black only mode, the cyan, magenta and yellow imaging units are not run since only the black imaging unit is needed. Changing print modes is desirable because time spent running the color imaging units while printing a black only image creates unwanted churn on the color imaging units and thereby shortens the useful life thereof.
Based upon the foregoing, there is a need for a more effective approach to duplex printing.